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9/5/17
Hello everyone!!
What a wonderful week we had! Miracles happen every week, but we had some more this week, especially in the lives of a few people we are teaching! And, as always, Elder Brown and I had tons of fun going out and trying to help as many people as possible this week!
On Monday, we had a super fun zone p-day! Elder Brown and I had a fun idea planned, but had to scrap it and change it at the last minute last Sunday. Luckily, with the help of some really awesome members, we were able to throw a party together with pizza, ping pong, volleyball, pool, and a few other fun things to do. It ended up being a big success, and everyone loved it! We were so happy!
The rest of the week I will describe by the people that we taught!
Elle - About a month ago, we talked with a woman named Elle. We had a great conversation with her on the street. She wasn't super interested in the beginning, but after talking and laughing for a bit, she said that she'd meet up with us again. Well, we finally met up with her this week over lunch! We had a great conversation about what we do as missionaries and some of the core values of the church, mainly families. She is super nice and is interested in looking deeper into things! We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to start reading! She is pretty busy, but hopefully we will see her again in a few weeks. It was a pretty sweet conversation!
Aaron - we have been teaching Aaron for about two months now, and he came to church last month. He is an atheist, so is super interesting to teach! We had a lesson this week at a member's home in the family ward he lives in. There were four of us members there and we bore strong testimonies of God and, interestingly enough, how the Book of Mormon helped us receive our answer that God is out there. Aaron is very, very intelligent, and used to believe in God and actually deconstructed his belief system bit by bit using logic and reason. Well, after our testimonies this time, he told us that he didn't know if deconstructing his beliefs was the right thing to do. He wants to believe, but his logic and reasoning is holding him back! We put him on the spot to make a decision, to keep meeting with us and seek God, or to stop meeting with us. We will see what he says this week!
Rachel - This was a huge miracle! We were driving on our way back from a lesson out in Castle Rock when this woman named Rachel called us on the phone. Rachel is actually already a member, but hasn't come to church in about a year. We have tried reaching out to her previously, but hadn't heard anything back. She called us and asked if we could swing by that night! It turns out that she is wanting to come back to church because she feels a relationship with Heavenly Father will bring her peace and a sense of calmness (real happiness). We had a great discussion with her about regaining a testimony and a witness of Heavenly Father in her life!
Donovan - Donovan is one of our more solid investigators. He was found by another set of missionaries and passed off to us because he wants to go to church with people his own age. We are the YSA [Young Single Adult 18-30] missionaries. He is super nice and awesome, but has some mental problems and there are some setbacks holding him down in life. We had some great talks with him this week about the Restoration and the Word of Wisdom and other commandments that we have been given. He believes all the doctrines we have been teaching him, and now we are helping him prepare for baptism. He wants to stop smoking, and so that is the obstacle we are going to tackle this week! He came to church on Sunday and loved it, so he is really doing well!
Ryan - Last, but definitely not least, is Ryan. I've talked about Ryan a little bit in the past. He is doing so good! We had some great talks this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring) and also about the life and mission of Jesus Christ. Ryan, who didn't believe in God about a month ago, now believes in God! We are working with him to come to know that Jesus Christ is the Savior. Ryan is also pretty excited about baptism and entering into that covenant with God now that he knows that God is real! After testimony meeting at church, I turned to Ryan and asked him how he felt. He was smiling and was shaking his head, and told me that he just felt so happy. He said that he wished people could feel like this all the time. It was so cool!! We are so excited for him moving forward!
So anyway, that was just a little taste of what our week was like with the people we are seeing! It is so much fun to be out here and to be talking with and trying to help so many people here in Denver. I know that the gospel is truly sent from God, 1. Because of how happy it is making the people I teach and 2. Because of how happy I feel as I serve out here. I don't really have words to describe it.
I love you all so much! Thank you so much for everything you are doing to be a good person and a friend to me!
Elder Bird
8/28/17
Hey everyone!!
Lots of things happened this week. We also had a ton of time to teach people this week! The coolest guy we are teaching though is still Ryan, from last week.
Ryan is doing really well! We were able to see him a few times this week, and we are starting to become really good friends. He works as a Pizza Hut delivery guy, and every time we see him now, we always ask him "How's the hut?"
The coolest thing that happened with him this week, is that he is really starting to get his answer that God is out there. A guy in the ward, who is helping him, Nathan Crowley, had an awesome conversation with him and they figured out together that God has been an active part of Ryan's life for a long time. They just talked through different small experiences in Ryan's life and they were able to see how much God really did care about Ryan. At the end of their conversation, Ryan had a different view about God. It was super cool to hear about! We are so excited for him moving forward, the gospel is going to completely change him and his life.
One other cool experience from the week was that we were able to find a couple and started to teach them. Their names are Grace and Cameron and they are super funny. We were unsure of their interest level at first, but they were really nice and let us in. They asked us some questions about what we believed happened after we died, and we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation from a little sketch we drew. It was so cool to see them actually listen and ask more questions to try and understand what we believed. We will hopefully see them again soon!
Anyway, miracles are happening out here and we are so happy. It is the funnest thing to be a missionary and be talking to so many cool people!
Elder Bird
8/21/17
Hey Everybody!
What an exciting week! We had the chance to see the eclipse today as a whole mission. President Savage decided to have a "mission wide P-day," up in Arvada to watch the eclipse and participate in some cool activities. There were games and we competed as zones. Parker zone was of course the best there.
The coolest thing that happened this week was working with our top investigator right now, Ryan. He is a super cool guy (with a great name) that we found a few weeks ago. He has no religious background and so we have been able to have some really cool conversations about God and how we can come to know Him.
The invitation we gave to him last week was for him to say a kneeling prayer every day until we saw him again. Well, we saw him again this week and he told us that it had felt good to do, but nothing extraordinary had happened and he hadn't really felt like he had gotten his answer. As we were talking, we told him about fasting and how it is sort of like an amplified prayer. We were even able to share a video with him called "Hope of God's light", which talks about a man's experience and how fasting changed his life (over time). So we asked him to do three things: 1. Come to church with us again 2. Come to the Conversion fireside the Stake was putting on Sunday night. It was a fireside [meeting] where some recent converts were sharing their stories and 3. to fast with us from Saturday night after dinner until Sunday night at the fireside.
Ryan kept all of his commitments and is doing fantastic! I think he is slowly starting to feel his answer come to him. He loved coming to the fireside, and we are going to see him again tonight at the ward FHE. [Family Home Evening] It is so cool to see him learn and grow and choose to keep these things we have given him and see what they can do for him. I know the gospel is already starting to change his life, and I am just grateful I can be here to see the process.
I have to go! But I love you all and love the work we get to be a part of!
Elder Bird
8/16/17
Hey everyone!!
What a good week! I am back on my feet again and back to the same old Elder Bird, just no appendix now. This week has been a super fun one (like all the others). Elder Brown and I experienced some crazy miracles, as we've tried to pick up where we left off, and carve back out a pool of people to teach and help out.
The first miracle happened Tuesday night. After dinner, we had our final lesson with Bryce Rich, a super solid guy, we have been meeting with. He is probably our most solid person. He understands everything we are teaching, and is progressing in the gospel and working hard to get his answers. We have become really good friends with him (he was the one we were teaching last week when my appendix freaked out). Tuesday night, was our final lesson with him though, because he was moving to Georgia to go back to school. (We have already hooked him up with the missionaries out in Georgia and he is planning on going to church out there.) We had a good last lesson with him and shared our testimonies, and said goodbye. It was bittersweet. We were happy for him, but sad to lose our strongest investigator. Later that night at our weekly basketball activity, Elder Brown got to talking with one of the guys there named Keith and had a really good convo with him about the gospel. Keith even told Elder Brown that he wanted to be baptized!! It was super cool! We got Keith's information so that we can start teaching him and trying to help him out. It was cool to see how Heavenly Father can just fill our time with people to teach and help, when others are moving away from us.
Another cool experience was with a lesson we had with Ryan Tupper, an investigator that had come to church last Sunday. I was just meeting Ryan for the first time, because I had been in bed all of last week. We had a great talk! We really got to know each other, and talked about what he is looking for in life, and what truly makes him happy. We also talked about what the world says should make you happy and what the gospel says will make you happy. Ryan told us that he was happiest when he could help out and make others happy in some way. We really connected with him over that. The Spirit was strong as we talked with him. We talked about how he could get an answer as to whether God was out there or not, and then we asked him to come to church on Sunday, and he did. He came to Sacrament meeting on Sunday, and an FHE activity with us last night. He is doing really well, and we will see him again tomorrow!
The last cool thing that happened this week was being able to go to the temple this morning! That is the reason why I am writing on Wednesday instead of Monday. Our P-day got switched to today for the trip. It was an awesome experience, as always. I had some questions racking my brain recently, so I took them to the Lord and was hoping to get some answers in the temple. In our session, we saw Sister Simmons and a friend from the ward, Nathan Crowley. It was really cool to have so many friends who were there to support us. I felt so much peace while I was there and I was able to receive answers to my questions in the Celestial Room. I am so grateful that we got to go the temple today.
Anyway, things are going really well and I am healing up nicely! I hope things back home are just as peachy as they are out here. I love you all!!
Elder Bird
8/7/17
Hiya Everyone!!
I hope everyone's week back home has been just peachy!! Ours has been quite the roller coaster, but we are all alive and well!! The big news of the week, as you can see in the title, was that I ended up back in the hospital! Fun stuff!! I was diagnosed with appendicitis on Wednesday morning, and I had surgery soon after. Everything went really well, and I am on the road to recovery. I will tell you about the story, so you can hear about the wild ride.
So everything started on Tuesday. We had a pretty good morning, helping the missionaries in the Pinery Ward get moved out of their home because they were both leaving. One of them was actually heading home. So after getting them moved out, we all drove up to Westminster to drop him off at the mission home and say goodbye. That was pretty cool, because I got to see and say a final goodbye to Elder Brammer, Elder Mork, and Elder Eldredge. It was so weird for me to see that they were all leaving! Three of my companions were going home, and all at the same time! Anyway, we said goodbye and headed out as a trio with the other Elder. We had a good day, all together, teaching and trying to contact investigators. Around 4:30pm, we were out and about and I started to have some bad stomach pain. I didn't voice any concern but just tried to deal with it. At dinner, I said something to my companions and to our host. I told them it might be just some bad gas build up or just a pulled muscle. Our host gave me some medicine to relieve the gas, and then we headed out to teach one of our top progressing investigators.
Well, we pulled up for the lesson and the pain was still there. I told my companions that I might have to just sit out for the lesson. We pulled up and met our investigator and his member friend, and told them about my pain and how I might have to sit out. The member friend looked pretty concerned, and he had me call the Mission Nurse to just check that it wasn't anything too serious. So I called the nurse and explained my pain to her a little bit, and she told me what it might be, one of the options being appendicitis. She told me that she was going to call a doctor and see what to do from there. Satisfied, we headed into the lesson, joking the whole time about my "burst appendix" and just the whole thing. It was an awesome Restoration lesson, and we really felt the Spirit as we taught. I got two phone calls while we were teaching . . . but I let them ring, because I wasn't about to stop this fire lesson for just some silly stomach pain. So anyway, we finished the lesson and were walking out when I checked the phone. It turns out the calls were from the nurse, telling me that they wanted me to go to the Emergency Room. I called her back and talked to her for a bit, and she told me she needed me to go to an ER in downtown Denver called Saint Joseph's Hospital. We were a little confused about why we had to go so far, [it was a Kaiser hospital] and so decided to drop off our trio companion with some other Elders close by, and headed to Denver.
We pulled up around 8:30pm to the address we had been given, and found to our surprise, no hospital!! Uh oh! We parked the car for a bit and started "street contacting", asking if anyone knew where Saint Joseph's was. No one seemed to know! Finally, someone gave us some cross streets, about a mile away from where we were. Haha! We were off. Well, we pulled up at those cross streets and found . . . no hospital. We were a little on the frustrated side by now and my pain was getting worse. I remembered that the Mission Nurse said something about the hospital being close to my Kaiser diabetes doctor, and so we plugged in that address. Two minutes later, we pulled up and found a building that said Saint Joseph's!!!
I got registered in the ER around 9:30pm and we sat and waited to be seen. For the first hour in the waiting room, I sat quiet and was feeling a little mad that I was back in the ER again on my mission. I had just been here in this exact same place, 1 year ago!! After sitting silent for a bit and trying to blow off some steam, I settled down. I started talking to Elder Brown and he helped me laugh about it. We spent the next three hours sitting around, joking and watching fun facts of the ER's TV. During that time, I tried to convince myself that I just had a pulled muscle and that I would be back home that night. Finally, at 12:30am I had some blood drawn and a urine sample taken (I almost passed out while getting my blood drawn, Elder Brown said I turned whiter than my hair!!). Anyway, after getting the tests done, I finally got into my room and into a gown by 1:30am in the morning. Around this time, our sweet Mission Nurse walked into my room and was there to help me with the process. It was nice to have her and Elder Brown with me as I waited. I was glad I had people there to help me, and keep things pretty light.
Anyway, around 1:50pm, I was in for a CAT SCAN and a half an hour later I was having surgery! I definitely had appendicitis and they wanted to remove my appendix ASAP. They called my parents and got my dad on the phone (they had to wake him up) and I got to tell him what was up. After talking to him, they got me ready for surgery and then wheeled me into the big room. I laughed with the doctors and the nurses about my weird hat and the cold table, until they put me under.
I kind of half woke up around 4am that morning, coming out of anesthesia and in the recovery room. I was a little loopy! They wheeled me back into my room, and the Mission President and the Mission Nurse were there. He called my mom and I was able to talk to her a little bit, it felt like a dream. Then I went back to sleep. At 9am I woke up to an empty room, but then a nurse came in and greeted me. My mom called and I was able to talk to her on the phone, which was probably the most comforting part of the whole thing.
I didn't stay in the hospital for long, in fact my hospital stay was pretty short. I was back on my feet to use the bathroom by 10am and then some Elders came to keep me company around 12pm. At 2:30pm I was released and Elder Brown took me home.
The rest of the week was spent laying in bed trying to recover. I stayed inside and watched church videos for hours on end, while my tummy slowly healed. Different Elders came and stayed with me, while Elder Brown went out with their companions to keep our appointments, and keep the work going. I am doing much better now, and I might even be able to go back out and work this week!!
I'm running out of time, but it has been quite the week. The one thing I do know is that even though these things have happened to me on my mission, I cannot deny that God loves me more than I even know, and that He has a plan for me that will make everything work out in the end. See 1 Nephi 11:17 . . . it helped me quite a bit this week.
1 Nephi 11:17 "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."
Anyway, I love you all so much and have felt the outpouring of love this week as I have gone through these things. I am so grateful for the angels that God has put in my life to help me along my path. I love you all so much, and will continue to thank God for all He has given me.
Elder Bird
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